Thrift shop re-blooms in West Barnstable

When the Cape Cancer Thrift Shop in Barnstable Village moves to West Barnstable on May 15, it will leave behind it a heritage that stretches literally to Polynesia.

Ellen Chahey

Move from Barnstable Village won’t change Cape Cancer Thrift Shop’s character, volunteers say Ellen C. Chahey photo WHAT IS IT? – If you know what this donated glass object is, says volunteer Lore Garner, you can have it. Its rim is finished like a drinking glass, and it doesn’t seem to support lamp hardware. When the Cape Cancer Thrift Shop in Barnstable Village moves to West Barnstable on May 15, it will leave behind it a heritage that stretches literally to Polynesia. The volunteers who staff the shop are looking forward to a new venue that’s “white and bright, with beautiful hardwood floors,” said volunteer Millie Nagle of the space at 1085 Route 6A near the West Barnstable Post Office. The site is formerly the “Exit Five Gallery,” whose owner will continue to operate a small shop from a home on the property, according to thrift shop volunteers. Nagle has volunteered at the shop since 1978. She shared a letter about its origins from her friend Harry Clagg of Prineville, Ore. “My mother, Marjorie Clagg, started the shop in the late 1950’s under the name ‘Hale Kakua,’ a Hawaiian name meaning House of Help,” Clagg wrote. “It was a Polynesian handicrafts shop. My father was the chief purchasing agent during his travels around the Pacific in the 1958 to 1968 period. My mother operated the store during the summer seasons. Much of the proceeds were donated to the Cape Cancer Society.” Clagg’s letter continues, “After my father retired from his job in 1968, they had difficulty maintaining a dependable supply line of Polynesian handicrafts. By the early 1970s they abandoned the Hale Kokua idea and turned the operation into the Cape Cancer Thrift Shop, reselling donated goods year-round and turning over the proceeds to the Cape Cancer Society.” According to Clagg’s letter, the family continued to rent the shop to the society until they sold the property in 2007. When the shop leaves for its new West Barnstable digs, it will leave behind a village with no remaining thrift shops (the thrift shop run by Hospice and Palliative Care of Cape Cod, also located along Route 6A in Barnstable, closed in early 2009). Clagg closed his letter with “thanks and appreciation to all of the current volunteers for all of your past efforts in continuing this admirable tradition.” One of those volunteers, Lore Garner, said that her experiences at the shop led her to a career in antiques. Now that she’s retired, she has recycled back into volunteering at the thrift shop. A mother of six, she said that thrift shops helped clothe her family. And thrift shops are fun, too, she agreed. As business winds down in Barnstable Village, she shared a couple of interesting items. An unused obi (for those who don’t do crossword puzzles, that’s the sash that ties a kimono), complete with the original instructions and a handwritten translation into English, and a glass “what’s-it” (“if you can identify it, you can have it free,” she said) were on sale for just a few bucks. The store is having a half-price sale on Saturday, May 2 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. to get ready for the move. Garner said that a few choice items will be kept for the new store, just so it isn’t empty. According to Nagle, who plans to keep volunteering in the new store, the same eclectic touches will continue. There will still be interesting customers, such as the man who only came in to buy watches; interesting volunteers, such as Wayne Anderson, “who picked up and delivered everything for us for 20 years without charge”; and visitors who come from as far away as England because the shop benefits cancer patients, currently by donating to Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The Cape Cancer Thrift Shop will relocate to 1085 Route 6A near the West Barnstable Post Office.